Closure apparatus for missile compartments and the like



Jan. 7, 1964 R. F. HERETH ETAL 3,116,664

CLOSURE APPARATUS FOR MISSILE COMPARTMENTS AND THE LIKE Filed March 28, 1962 9 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN T0 RS PAL/ H F HERETH 1964 R. F. HERETH ETAL 3,116,664

CLOSURE APPARATUS FOR MISSILE COMPARTMENTS AND THE LIKE Filed March 28, 1962 9 Sheets-Sheet 2 W 1 8 /Z /6 V s I n /3 a NU) j I /0 Z 9 h/J I Q 2' Z r n m fi Fig. 2 INVENTQZfS RALPH F HERE? $50562 M JAR/ 414 CLOSURE APPARATUS FOR MISSILE COMPARTMENTS AND- THE LIKE Jan. 7, 1964 R. HERETH ETAL 9 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 28, 1962 Jan. 7, 1964 R. F. HERETH ETAL 3,116,654

CLOSURE APPARATUS FOR MISSILE COMPARTMENTS AND THE LIKE Filed March 28, 1962 9 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTORS RALPH F 1 7 5957 6250/?65 M SHE/WAN Jan. 7, 1964 CLOSURE APPARATUS FOR MISSILE COMPARTMENTS AND THE LIKE Filed March 28, 1962 R. F. HERETH ETAL 3,116,664

9 Sheets-Sheet 5 h V) C31 N w v Q INVENTORS RALPH A A f/95TH 650 965 M. JwmMA/v J 1964 R. F. HERETH ETAL 3,1165

CLOSURE APPARATUS FOR MISSILE COMPARTMENTS AND THE LIKE Filed March 28, 1962 9 Sheets-Sheet a 1954 R. F. HERETH ETAL 3,116,664

CLOSURE APPARATUS FOR mssm: COMPARTMENTS AND THE LIKE 9 Sheets-Sheet '7 Filed March 28, 1962 CLOSURE APPARATUS FOR MISSILE COMPARTMENTS AND THE LIKE IN VEN TORS P441019 fi' HEPETH R. F. HERETH ETAL 3,116,664

CLOSURE APPARATUS FOR MISSILE COMPARTMENTS AND THE LIKE 9 Sheets-Sheet 9 Jan. 7, 1964 Filed March 28, 1962 INV EN TORS ATTORNEYS 3,11d,664 (ILQSURE APPARATUS FOR MISSILE QUE/HART- MENTS AND THE LIKE Ralph F. Hereth, Port Urchard, and George M. Sherman, Bremerton, Wash, assignors to the United States of America as represented by the Faecretary of the Navy Filed Mar. 23, 1962, er. No. 183,707 4 Ciaizns. (Cl. 89--l.7) (Granted under Title 35, US. (lode (1952), see. 266) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

The present invention relates generally to closure apparatus and, in particular, to apparatus for opening and closing the access to a missile-receiving magazine compartment or cell.

Although the invention is particularly intended for use with a guided missile launching system of a type which will be described later in some detail, it will be recognized that principles employed have a considerably wider applicability and Will be found to be useful in a variety of situations.

One object of the invention is to provide a closure member for a container, such as a missile magazine, the closure being so arranged and mounted as to be capable of being rotated 90 from its closed position in either direction into an open position in which the closure is disposed in substantially a vertical position.

Another object is to provide a similar closure capable of being arcuately swung in either direction to an open or a closed position and, when in a closed position, capable of being moved in a substantially straight line direction into and out of a seated engagement with the closure surfaces.

Another generalized object relating to the foregoing ones is to provide an unusually simple, economic and thoroughly reliable closure mechanism.

Still another object is to provide a rail-bearing missile magazine blast door capable of opening into a substantially vertically disposed position at either side of a blast door opening for aligning its rails with similar rails carried by other missile'launcher components.

A further object is to provide an economic and reliable means for rotatably opening the blast doors Without the necessity for associating an individual motor with each of the blast doors of the magazine, and another somewhat analogous object is to provide a magazine cover having a plural number of blast doors all capable of being rotatably opened by a single drive.

Another object is to provide a missile loading apparatus including a pair of circumferentially-spaced launcher arms adapted to be rotatably positioned over glass doors, and doors being openable to one side or the other of the blast door openings depending upon which of the pair of launcher arms is disposed over the blast door being opened.

Another object closely related to the last one is to provide a rail-bearing blast door mechanism which is openable to one side or the other of a blast door opening to position the blast door rails in alignment with similar rails on either of the launcher arms so that missiles can be loaded on to either of the launcher arms regardless of whether the launcher arm is facing forward or rearward.

A further object is to provide a special latching mechanism for maintaining the closed position of the blast door, and in conjunction with this object, another object is to closely associate this latch with the drive for opening and closing the blast doors so that the doors can be opened only when unlatched.

rates atent ice Aditional objects and features will become more apparent in the detailed description which is to follow.

The preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying figures of which FIG. 1 is a perspective of the upper portion of a missile launching system, certain portions of the launcher casings being broken away to show underlying structure;

FIG. 2 is a perspective of a missile magazine the front portion of which is broken away and partially sectioned to show underlying parts;

FIG. 3 is a bottom View of the missile magazine cover assembly shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a section taken on lines 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is another vertical section taken on line 55 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary sectioned perspective of the missile magazine and its cover illustrating the blast door of the invention in an opened position;

FIG. 7 is another fragmentary view similar to FIG. 6 but showing a section generally along the same line as the FIG. 4 section, the blast door being shown in a closed position;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of the structure within dotted line A of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 9 is schematic view illustrating a bufier mechanism used with the present blast door, portions of the buffer cylinders being broken away to show functional detail.

The major components of the launcher system include a large cylindrical magazine 1 adapted to stow a plurality of missiles Z in a concentric ring arrangement formed of an outer ring 3 and an inner ring 4. Each missile is carried in an individual magazine cell 6, formed of front and rear partition walls 7 and 8 which extend radially between an exterior wall 9 of the magazine and a pair of interior concentric walls 1d and 11. As may be noted, front and rear partition walls '7 and 8 each mount rails 12. and '13 in which the missile shoes can freely ride. Missiles are loaded or unloaded through continuous tracks formed by these rails and, of course, other launcher rails to be described must mate with the rails in the magazine to provide the track.

Magazine 1 is stationary to the extent that it does not move or rotate the missiles into a loading position. However, to permit proper indexing for loading and unloading, the magazine is provided with a rotatable magazine cover 14 supported at its outer edge by cylindrical exterior magazine wall 9 and at its inner edge by a stationary stand 16. Drive for the cover is imparted through a ring gear 17 the drive itself not being illustrated, although it will be appreciated that the launcher incorporates appropriate mechanism for achieving proper indexing of the cover.

Access to the magazine is provided through pairs of inner and outer blast doors 1% and 19, these doors being one of the principal features of the present invention, although their detailed description will be reserved for a later section. For the present it will suffice to note (FIG. 1) that inner ring doors are circumferentially spaced apart to lie directly over inner ring 3 of the magazine cells or missiles. Similarly, outer blast doors 19 also are spaced on diametrically opposite sides of the rotatable cover over outer ring 4 or" the magazine cells. In the manner that will be described, the doors are opened and closed to complete a continuous track or rails between the magazine and the launcher proper, it being especially notable that each door carries on its interior surface a rail section 29 to mate with the other rails and form the necessary track.

In a loading and launching operation, the magazines are hoisted from their cells on to a pair of launcher arms 21 and 22 Which, it may be noted, are mounted on a rotatable turret 23 carried axially over stand 16. The

lower portion of the turret extends downwardly into the opening provided by the ring-shaped magazine and its drive is imparted through a pinion-driven ring gear 24 carried by stationary stand 16. Launcher arms 21 and 22 consequently are rotatably trainable about a vertical axis with turret 23, this train movement permitting the arms to be positioned directly over a selected blast door 13 or 19. The doors, in turn, rotatably index through cover movement to provide access to the missile or missiles to be hoisted.

The launcher arms also can be elevated and, for this purpose, they are mounted on suitable trunnions provided by a turret torque tube (not shown), the turret also mounting an elevation drive by means of which the arms can be moved from their illustrated horizontal position 90 to a vertical position which is their loading and un- 7 loading position. Each arm carries a rail section 26 and 27 onto which the missiles are loaded for firing or launching. Additionally, the arms mount what is known as a rammer mechanism 255 adapted to extend into the magazine for engaging and moving the missile through the continuous rail track, onto the launcher arm rails. Obviously, for such a purpose, the arms must be elevated into a vertical position so as to permit their rail sections 26 and 27 to mate with rail sections 12 and 13 of the magazine. The rammer mechanism is a sprocket-driven chain 29 that carries at its free end a rammer head (not shown) in the form of a latch adapted to engage and hoist the missile.

One of the complicating factors of an arrangement of the type described is the fact that the rammer head must be capable of picking up a missile from one or the other of its sides. By way of illustration, it may be noted that launcher arms 21 and 22 of FIG. 1 both have their rails disposed in vertical alignment with rear magazine rails 12, so that the rammer heads of these arms will travel in these rear rails to latch and hoist the missiles. However, if launcher arms 21 and 22 were to be rotated 180 from their illustrated FIG. 1 position, their rails then would have to align with front magazine rails 13 and their rammer heads then would travel in rails '13 rather than rails 12. Thus, depending upon the flight altitude desired for the missile, either magazine rail can be used to receive the rammer head, this being possible since the missiles have pairs of shoes that ride one in each of the magazine rails.

Such being the situation, it is readily apparent that blast doors 18 and 19 also must swing open to one or the other side of their openings so as to align their rails with either of magazine rails 12 or 13. Such alignment, of course, is required to provide a continuous path onto the particular launcher arm to be loaded.

To accomplish these and other purposes, the doors of the present invention include a closure member or cover 30 spherical in shape and provided at its peripheral edge with a bevelled surface 31 adapted to flushly engage a similar surface of the magazine cover when the door is closed. In its opening and closing movements, cover 30 is arcuately swung by a driven pinion 32 and an arcuately-shaped gear 33, the gear being an integral part of an inverted U-shaped frame 34 which has a horizontallyextending support section 36 running substantially parallel to cover 30 and a pair of downwardly extending legs 37 and 38. As shown in FIG. 4, the frame is mounted on pivot pins 39 each of which is carried by a journal box bolted to the magazine. Also, the pivot pins are axially aligned as Well as being centered in vertical alignment with a transverse diameter of cover 39. In other words, a vertical plane through the pivotal axis of the pins bisects both the cover and its opening. Another functionally important aspect of the arrangement is that gear 33 has its are centered when the door is in a closed position, so that, its pinion 32 is capable of driving the gear equidistantly in a clockwise or counter clockwise direction.

Cover 35} is resiliently supported on frame 34, the support being provided by four studs 41 secured by welding or otherwise to the underside of cover 3t and extending downwardly through frame section 36 to terminate in threaded ends that receive nuts 42 and spring retaining plates 43. Resiliency is provided by coil springs 44 hearing against the retainer plates at one end and against recessed portions formed on the underside of frame section 36 at their other end. Consequently, cover 30 normally is pulled downwardly toward horizontal section 36 by springs 44.

The resilient mounting of the cover facilitates opening movements of the door as well as assures a tight fit of the closure. To accomplish these purposes, the cover mounts a pair of cam rollers 46, these rollers being mounted at diametrically opposite sides of the cover and otherwise being identical. In the final closing movements of the cover, the rollers ride up on cams 47 carried by the magazine to press the cover upwardly against the spring force into a closed and tightly sealed position.

Further, during the initial opening movement of the cover cams 47 are so shaped that the rollers immediately ride off of their high point and permit the springs to again draw the cover downwardly toward horizontal section 36 of the blast door frame. This downward movement breaks the seal of the blast door sutlicient ly to permit the arcuate opening movement.

The cover also carries previously-mentioned rail section 2d which also is resiliently mounted on horizontal and vertical springs 48 and 49. The mounting of horizontal springs 48 best is seen in FIGS. 4 and 5 where it may be noted that the springs each have their inner ends engaging retainer plates Stl which are supported by a cleat 55. The outer ends of the springs bear against outer plates 52 which, in turn, suspendably support a rail plate 53 to which rail section 20 itself is secured. In elfect, these horizontal springs permit a resilient lateral movement of the rails.

Vertical springs 49 provide a fore and aft flexibility, each of these spring assemblies including a vertically-disposed coil spring mounted on a spring rod 54 which is secured at its upper end to rail plate 53. The lower, free end of the rod mounts a nut 56 and a retainer 57, the spring itself hearing at one end on the retainer and at the other against the rail plate. The rather obvious purpose in mounting the rail section resiliently is to both permit the rails to line up with the rails of the magazine and the launcher arm as well as to provide a cushioning effect to soften the shock and vibration produced when the missile travels through the rail.

Pinion 32., which, as already mentioned, drives a gear 33 to open and close its door is mounted at the end of a drive shaft 58 (FIGS. 3 and 4), the inboard end of which extends through a magazine wall and terminates in a jawshaped coupling 59 adapted to be releasably engaged and driven. It also will be appreciated that the other blast doors of the magazine cover have similar drives to the extent that each blast door has its independent drive shaft, pinion and coupling, the couplings all projecting inwardly through the inboard section of the magazine so as to lie in a circumferentially spaced ring arrangement for engagement by a driving mechanism to open or close the doors.

The driving mechanism for the blast door drive shaft couplings is illustrated only diagrammatically in FIG. 4, the details of this drive being of little present significance. Generally, it is provided by a hydraulic B-end motor (not shown) having a radially projecting drive shaft 61 which terminates in a coupling member adapted to engage with one or the other of the blast door drive shaft couplings 59. More specifically, two such drives are employed,

these drives being mounted on the turret so that each shaft 61 is disposed directly beneath one of the launcher arms in a position to align with shafts 58 of the doors when the launcher arms have been indexed into door alignment. In other words, shafts 61 are diametricallyopposed on the turret to coincide with the circumferential spacing of inner and outer pairs of doors 1d and 19. Thus, the indexing of the turret carries the arms as Well as shafts 61 into alignment with a pair of doors.

A further consideration is that motor shafts 61 must be driven in opposite rotational directions to permit the doors to be swung open in the proper direction. As will be recalled, when the doors are positioned as shown in FIG. 1, they should be swung to the rear of their door openings to permit launcher arm rails 2s and 27 to align with magazine rails 12. To accomplish this purpose, it will be appreciated that one of the doors must swing in a clockwise direction as viewed from the drive end, while the other must swing in a counter-clockwise direction. For this reason, diametrically-opposed drive shafts 61 are driven in opposite rotational directions. It further may be noted that the opposite drives satisfy the door-opening requirements even when the launcher arms are rotatably indexed 186 from their illustrated positions in FIG. 1. in this new position, the directions of the door opening movements must be reversed to align the launcher arm rails with magazine rails 13 rather than rails 12. However, it is readily apparent that, when the shafts have been indexed 180 with the arms, each shaft then will engage a different gear shaft 53 and, because shafts 61 are driven in opposite directions, the engaged shafts 58 then will be driven in a rotational direction opposite to that previously achieved in the initial FIG. 1 position.

Other features of the invention include a latch mechanism illustrated in FIGS. 3, 7 and 8 and a buffer mechanism shown in FIG. 9. The latch mechanism functionally is actuated, when the blast door has been indexed into position by the rotatable magazine cover, to unlatch the door and thus permit the door opening movements. The latch mechanism for the outer and inner doors is slightly different, although the difference is simply one of arrangement in adapting to the concentric ring concept, rather than the introduction of different components. A description of one latch mechanism should suffice.

The arrangement illustrated in FIG. 7 is an inner-door mechanism, while FIG. 8 is an outer door. As seen in FIG. 8, the functional part of the latch mechanism is provided by wedges 62 which are driven beneath cleats 63 that, in turn, are carried on the undersurface of the door. There are four such cleats and the latches therefor provide four wedges one at each corner, so to speak, of the door. To drive the wedges, the mechanism includes a pair of push rods 64 and as each having its inboard end projecting through the magazine wall into the open center space of the magazine, an end portion of the rods being engaged by coil springs 67 to normally urge the latches into an outward position. In operation, one or the other of the push rods is engaged by hydraulically-driven piston rods 68 (PEG. 1) and the resulting motion is transmitted through appropriate linkage to simultaneously move all the wedges. To couple the motion of one push rod with the other, they are interconnected by a centrally pivoted rocker arm 6%. Thus, when one push rod is pressed inwardly, the other push rod moves outwardly.

The wedges themselves are driven to and fro by a conventional latch arrangement which includes a block '71 (FIG. 3) reciprocal with each of the push rods 64 and 66 and provided interiorly with an arcuate passage 72 in which is mounted a pin '73 of the wedge proper. As the push rod moves to and fro, the curvature of each passage constrains its pin to follow its path to reciprocate the wedge at right angles into locking or unlocking engag ment with the magazine with the door cleats. Because of the rocker arm arrangement, the curvature of the passages at one side of the latch mechanism runs in an opposite irection from those on the other side, this arrangement causing all four wedges to move in the same direction.

Piston members 68 which actuate the linkage are bydraulically-driven by fluid-powered cylinders (not shown) carried by the turret and, as seen in FlG. 1, each piston is located close to and on either side of each of the blast door operating drive shafts 61 so as to align with latch push rods 64- and 65 when the drive shafts align their coupling members with couplings 59 of the blast door drive shafts A further advantageous feature is that the coupling of the motor drive shafts 61 with the blast door drive shafts 53 is dependent upon latch actuation to the extent that the coupling can be made only when the latches have been released. To achieve this end, a clutch shaft '74 (FIGS. 7 and 8) has one end secured to push rod 64 and the other end engaging coupling 59 of each door drive shaft. Clutch shaft 74 is pivotally mounted in a cover supported block '76 so that inward reciprocating movement of push rod 64- pivots the clutch end of the shaft to move coupling 59 radially outwardly into a position in which it can be engaged by its turretsupported drive. Since inward movement of push rod releases the wedges of the door latch, it will be apparent that the drive shaft coupling can be made only when the latch has been released.

The buffer mechanism of FIG. 9 is somewhat conventional although its positioning with respect to the blast door mechanism as a whole is most advantageous. Thus, as seen, each buffer assembly consists of two identical hydraulic buffer units arranged in a single housing 77 and connected by passages in the housing to a hydraulic accumulator 78. The buffer housing supports the buffer units in position to decelerate and stop the blast door when it is opened in either direction.

Each buifer unit consists basically of a spring loaded piston 79 arranged in a cylinder 81, the piston being stroked under blast door load applied to its outwardly projecting end 82. The cylinder bore is closed at its bottom end and provides a spring seat for a piston spring 83 as well as a reservoir 84 for buffer fluid. At its top end the cylinder bore is closed around piston 79 by a suitable buffer bearing 86, a seal nut 37 and a splash guard 83, the butfer bearing having a key way that guides a key 89 mounted on the piston to ensure piston alignment.

The piston head itself is provided with tapered throttling grooves 91 as well as larger passages 92, the latter being closed by a ball check valve 93 maintained in position by a valve screw 94; threaded into the bottom end of the piston.

In operation, the piston is stroked by the frame load to force the piston downwardly and close check valve 93, buffer fiuid then being constrained to flow into the accumulators through tapered passageways ML. The accumulator itself consists of a spring loaded plunger 96 adapted in the manner indicated to maintain a load on a pre-formed bellows-type seal, which essentially, is an accumulator bladder. Passages 97 in the buffer housing connect an accumulator chamber to passages 91 and 92 of the buffer pistons and the action is such that an accumulator plunger spring 93 maintains reservoir pressure and compensates for expansion of the buffer fluid. When the blast door is closed, the frame releases the piston and the spring load which, in turn, permits check valve 93 to be open and the buffer fluid to return to reservoir 84 at the bottom of the cylinder bore.

The manner in which the various components of the in vention function has been considered in the foregoing detailed description. In summary, a blast door is provided which can be swung open from a seated to a verticallydisposed position at either side of its opening. Further, the doors each carry a rail section which, when the door is disposed in its vertical or opened position, aligns with similar rails on the launcher arms and the magazine to provide a continuous track for the pick-up mechanism (rammer head) carried usually by the launcher arms. Because the doors can be swung to either side of their openings, the pick-up mechanism also can be introduced into the cell interior from either side, this being advantageous because of the particular launcher arm arrangement.

Other advantages reside in the resilient mounting of both the door cover and the rail section carried by the cover.

A further beneficial arrangement is provided to rotatably drive the doors, this arrangement eliminating the need for independent drives carried by the cover for each door by employing a drive shaft adapted to be coupled to a turret-supported drive only when the cover has indexed the doors into a loading or unloading position. Latches also are associated with the door-opening drive and, in addition to providing a uniquely simple and effective latching action, they also are coordinated with the door drive to permit door-opening movement only when the latches have been released.

Other features which have been described achieve additional advantages that are considered of significant importance. Thus, the buffer mechanism arrangement is particularly appropriate in view of its compactness and relatively small size which suits the limited space available in launchers of the type described. However, it again is emphasized that the employment of the present mechanism is in no way limited to launcher applications and either the whole or parts of the described apparatus can be used advantageously in other environments.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for closing a compartment door opening comprising a frame pivotally mounted interiorly of the compartment and provided with a substantially flat support section, a cover, resilient means mounting said cover on said support section interiorly of the compartment, means for swingably moving said cover into and away from a door-closing seated position in the interior side of said opening, said resilient mounting drawing said cover toward said support section, cam means carried by the cover in position to contact the compartment during the final closing movement of the cover for moving the cover in a substantially straight line direction away from said support section into a firmly seated position during the final closing movement of said cover, said means for swingaoly moving the frame-supported cover including an annular ring-type rigidly carried by the frame, said annuiar gear having gear teeth provided about its internal periphery; pinion means driveably engaging the gear, and means carried by said compartment for driving said pinion in opposite rotational directions for swinging said cover from a closed position to one or the other side of said door opening.

2. Apparatus for loading a missile launcher comprising a magazine having a plurality of missile-receiving cells arranged in a ring about its central vertical axis, a magazine cover rota-tably carried by the magazine and provided with a pair of circumferentially spaced blast door openings formed over said cell ring, a spherically-shaped blast door closure mechanism for each opening, each of said mechanisms carrying inter-iorly a substantially identical rail section and being pivotallymounted interiorly of the magazine for arcuate clockwise and counterclockwise movement from a closed to an opened position, a turret mounted over said'cover .for rotation about said magazine central axis, a pair of substantially identical rail-bearing launcher arms spaced in conformity with the blast door spacing and carried by the rotatable turret over said cell ring, and a separate blast door driving means for each launcher arm, said driving means of each arm being adapted to operatively engage with either or the blast door mechanisms when the arn s are positioned over the mechanisms, and said driving means each being rotatably driven in an opposite direction for pivotally opening its engaged blast door mechanism, said blast door mechanism rails and said rails'being disposed and carried in positions permitting a mutual rail ali nment when said blast door mechanisms are open, whereby a continuous track from said magazine to said launcher arm is provided for arm loading purposes.

3. Missile stowing apparatus for use with rail-bearing trainable and elevatable launcher arms, comprising a magazine having a plurality of missile-receiving cells arranged in a ring about its central vertical axis, a magazine cover rotatably carried by the magazine and provided with a pair of circumferentially-spaced blast door openings formed over aid cell ring, a spherically-shaped blast door closure mechanism for each blast door, each of said mechanisms carrying interiorly of its closure portion a rail section adapted to align with said launcher ar-m rails when said blast door closures are in an open position, said closure mechanisms each being pivotally-mounted for arcuate clockwise and counter-clockwise swinging movement from a substantially horizontal closed position to a vertically upright open position at either side of its blast door opening, and a separate driving means for swing-ably opening and closing each of closure mechanisms, said driving means including a pair of diametrically-opposed driveable shafts carried by said magazine cover in operative engagement one with each of said mechanisms, a pair of diametrically-opposed shaft driving means carried in a relatively stationary position externally of said rotatable cover for operative alignment with said shafts, and a detachable coupling for drivably interconnecting each shaft with one or the other driving means when said shaft is rotated relatively into alignment with a driving means, each of said driving means being rotatably driven in an opposite direction for swingably opening its coupled blast door closure mechanism in a proper position for aligning its rails section with said launcher arm rails.

4. Apparatus for closing a compartment door opening comprising a pair of diametrically-opposed arms pivotally mounted interiorly of said compartment, 9. cover member carried by said pivotal arms and adapted to seat interiorly of said opening, an arouate gear carried by one of said arms, and a gear driving means carried by the compartent in operative engagement with said gear, said arcuate gear being shaped to cause said cover member to be swin-gably moved in either rotational direction from a seated do0rclosing position into an upright open position at either side of said opening, said gear driving means being rotatably drivable in either direction, a buffer mounted interiorly of said compartment, said butler comprising a pair of buffer piston means and a single accumulator means common to both piston means, one of said piston means being disposed in the path of travel of said gear in one rotational direction, and the other piston means being similarly disposed in the path of travel of the gear in the opposite rotational direction.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

2. APPARATUS FOR LOADING A MISSILE LAUNCHER COMPRISING A MAGAZINE HAVING A PLURALITY OF MISSILE-RECEIVING CELLS ARRANGED IN A RING ABOUT ITS CENTRAL VERTICAL AXIS, A MAGAZINE COVER ROTATABLY CARRIED BY THE MAGAZINE AND PROVIDED WITH A PAIR OF CIRCUMFERENTIALLY SPACED BLAST DOOR OPENINGS FORMED OVER SAID CELL RING, A SPHERICALLY-SHAPED BLAST DOOR CLOSURE MECHANISM FOR EACH OPENING, EACH OF SAID MECHANISMS CARRYING INTERIORLY A SUBSTANTIALLY IDENTICAL RAIL SECTION AND BEING PIVOTALLY-MOUNTED INTERIORLY OF THE MAGAZINE FOR ARCUATE CLOCKWISE AND COUNTERCLOCKWISE MOVEMENT FROM A CLOSED TO AN OPENED POSITION, A TURRET MOUNTED OVER SAID COVER FOR ROTATION ABOUT SAID MAGAZINE CENTRAL AXIS, A PAIR OF SUBSTANTIALLY IDENTICAL RAIL-BEARING LAUNCHER ARMS SPACED IN CONFORMITY WITH THE BLAST DOOR SPACING AND CARRIED BY THE ROTATABLE TURRET OVER SAID CELL RING, AND A SEPARATE BLAST DOOR DRIVING MEANS FOR EACH LAUNCHER, ARM, SAID DRIVING MEANS OF EACH ARM BEING ADAPTED TO OPERATIVELY ENGAGE WITH EITHER OF THE BLAST DOOR MECHANISMS WHEN THE ARMS ARE POSITIONED OVER THE MECHANISMS, AND SAID DRIVING MEANS EACH BEING ROTABLY DRIVEN IN AN OPPOSITE DIRECTION FOR PIVOTALLY OPENING ITS ENGAGED BLAST DOOR MECHANISM, SAID BLAST DOOR MECHANISM RAILS AND SAID ARM RAILS BEING DISPOSED AND CARRIED IN POSITIONS PERMITTING A MUTUAL RAIL ALIGNMENT WHEN SAID BLAST DOOR MECHANISMS ARE OPEN, WHEREBY A CONTINUOUS TRACK FROM SAID MAGAZINE TO SAID LAUNCHER ARM IS PROVIDED FOR ARM LOADING PURPOSES. 